Hourly Update

Appeals court reconsidering execution for Comer

SAN FRANCISCO - A federal appeals court here said Friday it would reconsider whether Arizona death row inmate Robert Charles Comer should be spared. In September, a three-judge panel of the San Francisco-based 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals overturned Comer's death sentence, despite him asking the court to end his appeals so he could be executed. The court announced Friday it would rehear the case with 15 judges. No hearing date has been set. Comer, 49, was convicted of killing a fellow Apache Lake camper during a 1987 crime spree where he also raped another camper after tying up her boyfriend. In September, the appeals court ruled Comer was competent to waive his appeals. But the majority on the three-judge panel held that the court would be remiss in its duty if it did not provide an appellate review of the claims that lower courts had rejected. In that review, the united panel upheld his conviction, rejecting arguments that his trial was flawed because of several constitutional errors. But a 2-1 majority found that Comer's sentencing violated his constitutional rights because he was hauled before the sentencing judge in a wheelchair "nearly naked, bleeding, shackled, and exhausted." He was convicted in 1988 of first-degree murder and armed robbery for the shooting death of Larry Pritchard. He was also convicted in a Maricopa County court of three counts of sexual assault, armed robbery, kidnapping and aggravated assault in connection to the attacks on another camper and her boyfriend. Comer's girlfriend, Juneva Willis, 47, was with him at the time of the crimes and was allowed to plead guilty to kidnapping in exchange for agreeing to testify against Comer. She served nearly six years in prison before her release in March 1994. The case is Comer v. Stewart, 98-99003.